A Petite Story
by Storm.Reader21
Summary: A small and funny story where the Dark Ace and Piper find themselves in a small situation with only each others help.
1. Thinking Instinctively Gets You No Where

**A/N: This is supposed to be a short humouress story about a problem the Dark Ace and Piper are forced to have to face together. I started really writing this because I enjoy the pairing Piper/Dark Ace even though I know it could never happen. But don't worry, I'm not going to have them suddenly announce their love to each other at all, probably won't even have them admit they like each other, because this is just a reasonable scenerio of what would really happen in the show if they got stuck in a situation were they would have to work together.**

**Also, if you've been reading my other story 'The Trouble Clef's', I haven't given up on it. I've just encountered major writing block for the story, even though I know where that stories going, I really need this break. I will probably continue writing for 'The Trouble Clef's' after i complete this story. So again, I'm sorry that 'The Trouble Clef' Story has been put on such a long hold.**

**Please Enjoy and Comment!**

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**Chapter 1: Thinking Instinctively Gets You No Where**

Piper stared in amazement. " I found it! It's over here!" She called out to the others. Aerrow, Junko, Finn, and Radarr scurried over to her side and stared at what she was looking at.

An ominous teal glow emanated from the crystal. It was jagged and looked like it was frozen fire.

"It's what my crystal scope has been picking up." Piper stated.

Finn looked in awe. "I wonder what this baby can do." His hand went out to grab the crystal from the pile of rubble.

"No!" Piper yelled, swatting his hand away. " For all we know, it could blow us up Finn! I have to examine it first before anything."

"Hmph. Ruin all the fun." Finn mumbled irritably.

Aerrow looked disapprovingly at Finn. "Piper's right Finn. You shouldn't be so impulsive."

Finn stood back, crossing his arms. " Of course _you_ agree with her." Aerrow ignored his comment.

Piper's hand slowly grasped the crystal and pulled it up to her face for a closer look. "It looks hollow, like some sort of energy is swirling inside. Not to mention, _extremely _unstable. We have to handle it with the utmost care."

Junko's gaze kept staring at the crystal. "It's really pretty." Radarr chirped in agreement.

"Looks powerful." Aerrow said.

"Very." Piper agreed. "Aerrow…" She turned to him. " It looks _extremely_ powerful. This could be just what we need. For all we know, this could be the key to-"

"-defeating the Cyclonians once and for all." Aerrow said hopefully. She nodded.

"Then lets get going dudes." Finn suggested. " The faster we get the crystal to work for us, then the faster the Cyclonians will go down."

"Right." Junko agreed, his gaze finally breaking away from the crystal.

"Right." Aerrow and Piper agreed.

Piper stuffed the crystal in her crystal pouch, and jumped on to her heli-scooter. The others got on their skimmers and they all took off. The small nameless terra they had been on was behind them in no time, and the Condor was a small black speck in the far horizon.

Finn smiled as they flew, " This is great!" he said. "We found the crystal, and not a single Cyclonian bothered us!"

"_ATTACK!" _

A large group of talons swooped out of the thick grey clouds around them. Their weapons were raised and they looked ready to fight.

Finn sighed. " Why couldn't I have just kept my big mouth shut?"

"Storm Hawks! Split!" Aerrow ordered.

Aerrow swerved to the left, Junko to the right. Piper swerved up and Finn dived down.

Junko activated his knuckle busters as his skimmer flew towards a group of talons. He began to sing a Wallop Folk song as his fists collided with the talons skimmers, causing them to explode. Although some of the talons skimmers started to fall out of the sky themselves, since the talons piloting them had covered their ears so they wouldn't have to listen to Junko's singing.

"Prepare to be _Finn_ished." Finn laughed to himself, whilst aiming at the talons flying ahead of him.

_Pew. Pew. Pew. _Finn fired shot after shot, each arrow hit the talons right on causing them to have to deploy their parachutes as they plummeted to the wastelands.

"Chica-Cha" He yelled excitedly.

"_Hehe." _Laughed a talon with a green moustache who shot a blast of energy at Finn's skimmer unexpectedly from behind.

Finn's skimmer sliced in half. " Why is it always me?" He questioned himself again before falling through the air. "AHHHHHHH-Ouff!" Finn groaned. He had fallen crotch first onto Junko's skimmer. "Thanks" Finn grunted, obviously in pain. Junko simply smiled.

With Radarr at the controls of his own skimmer, Aerrow kept hopping from Cyclonian switchblade to Cyclonian switchblade, taking them out in the process. He landed back on his own skimmer and scanned the battle field. His eyes narrowed. Only a hundred metres away he could see the Dark Ace standing on top his own Switchblade. He seemed to be busy scanning the battle field himself.

Aerrow jumped down into the driver seat of his skimmer and took off towards the Dark Ace. It was a clear path to his target, until a large group of talons flew in his way.

The man leading the group glared at him. "Going somewhere Skyknight?" And the talons attacked, leaving Aerrow preoccupied.

Piper flew above the battle on her heli-scooter. She turned on the radio.

"Stork! Do you read? We're being attacked by Cyclonians! We need back up-"

_Boom!_

Piper's sky-ride swerved to the side before stabilizing. Smoke rose from the engine.

She looked to her left to find the Talon who had just blasted her. She pulled out her staff which extended full length. But she didn't see the Talon from her right throw a fiery red crystal at her heli-scooter.

_BOOM!_

Piper felt her whole heli-scooter explode from beneath her. She dropped her staff. She started to frantically pull at her parachute strap as she fell but it didn't seem to work- why did she always get the defected one?

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh-OWF!" Piper groaned. She had landed on a red wing of a sky-ride. The lower half of her body dangled over the wing and her hands grasped the cold metal tightly as to not fall.

"_Hello." _A cold voice spoke. Her head whipped around to the man standing in the middle of the skimmer. He smiled triumphantly.

"Dark Ace," Piper growled. She pulled herself up onto the wing and stood up before wobbling uncontrollably and falling down on her knees.

"Haha. Pathetic!" Sniggered the Dark Ace. Piper sneered at him, slightly embarrassed. She had not realised how hard it was to stand on a skimmer going about 80km/hour. Aerrow had made it look so easy.

"Shouldn't you be off fighting Aerrow?" Piper accused. It was a reasonable accusation. Aerrow was usually always the one fighting the Dark Ace in the battles, because of the grudge the held against each other.

"I don't have time to bother myself with Aerrow."

Piper looked slightly confused. "What do you want then?!"

"Luckily for me, what I want just fell from the sky right in front of me." He grinned.

Piper's eyes widened. She went to pull out my staff, but nothing was there then remembered that it had fallen, so instead she pulled out a pink crystal from her satchel and threw a blast at him. He deflected it with his sword and threw a blast of his own which hit the pink crystal out of her hand and sent it tumbling to the wastelands below.

Piper quickly pulled a green crystal out but had no time to use it as the Dark Ace charged at her. Quickly she jumped over the Dark Ace in hopes of landing on the opposite wing in a fighting stance. Instead she found herself grasping the edge of the wing with her one hand, trying to keep herself from falling into the wastelands, like the green crystal she had just been holding.

"Nice try, but you need practice." Dark Ace commented, walking over to the wing she hung onto desperately. He grabbed the arm of her hand that was holding onto the wing and pulled her up so her face was only a few inches from his. She desperately hoped that she would never have to be that close to him again because she could see every feature of his angry face. His dark red eyes seemed to peer into her soul, causing her to shiver.

"Hand over the crystal you found and I won't throw you into the wastelands." He demanded.

"Nice try, but I won't fall for that." Piper mused, knowing perfectly well he'd throw her into the wastelands, crystal or no crystal.

"Oh you'll fall alright," he commented.

"Try me," she dared. She figured she _might_ be able to get her parachute to work. The Dark Ace growled.

"Woah!" Piper yelled as he pulled her up onto the wing unexpectedly.

_Riiight. He needs the crystal I have, so he wouldn't throw me to the wastelands_. Piper thought. She got up into a fighting stance.

Dark Ace sneered. " You leave me no choice but to take it by… FORCE!" He yelled the last bit as he swiped at her with his double-blade. Piper ducked and kicked him in the stomach. She pulled out an orange crystal. "My last crystal… better make it worth it." She whispered to herself.

"Argh!" Yelled the Dark Ace as he slashed at her again and again. Piper dodged each attack and moved swiftly in the middle of the skimmer as to not get cornered on the end of a wing.

She shoved the orange crystal at him, which exploded in his face. He fell hard on one wing.

His ash smouldered face looked up at her, boiling with anger. "You're going to wish you didn't do that."

He jumped at her and slashed so violently and quickly, Piper almost wasn't quick enough. The blade came so close to her face she could feel its intense heat tickle her skin. She fell on her back on the left wing. Slowly she got up and backed up to the edge of the wing as the Dark Ace approached her, his weapon raised.

"Your Skyknight's not here to save you now." The Dark Ace mocked as he looked around quickly to see all the other Storm Hawks occupied.

"I don't need saving." Piper growled. She lied of course. But she wasn't going to let him think she was at any disadvantage. Even though she was lacking a ride, weapon, working parachute, a friends help- yup, no disadvantage.

She stood at the tip of the wing wobbling back and forth, trying to keep her balance. The Dark Ace's blade was at the ready. "You sure about that?" And he thrust his blade at Piper.

And that's when Piper made her biggest mistake. Instinctively, her hand flew to her crystal pouch and wrapped around the only crystal in it. She pulled it out and held it up like a shield. The fiery red double-bladed smashed against the teal crystals delicate shell, shattering it's hallow frame, unleashing the unstable energy, causing it to blow up in _both _the Dark Ace's and Piper's face.


	2. A Small Problem

**Chapter 2: A Small Problem**

Piper held her head momentarily. She was slightly dazed but besides that she felt fine. That is, until she opened her eyes. She stared in bewilderment at her settings. Something in her gut moved, her mouth hung open, and she simply stared.

Everything was huge! She blinked a few times, even pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She looked up at the battle above. Skimmers, the size of full grown dragons soared over her. Talons that floated downwards on their parachutes were the size of Gundstaff. The terrifying truth started to sink in.

She had shrunk. She was the size of a mouse. Standing only 10cm tall.

_This can't be happening! I'm so stupid! _Piper thought_. I shouldn't have even touched that crystal. What was I thinking? _Piper sighed. _I _wasn't_ thinking._

She scanned her surroundings again, and her eyes stopped on the small figure standing in front of her. He was only a metre away, but for her it was actually more like 10 metres away. But even from that distance, she could recognize who it was across from her on the giant sky-ride.

The Dark Ace stared fiercely at her. His eyes glowed with hatred as he stalked over to her. Piper staggered backwards.

"You are going to regr- Woah!" The Dark Ace started but was interrupted by his giant Switchblade which violently gave a jolt. Piper stumbled onto her knees and looked at the controls of the ride.

It was making an unnatural crackling sound as teal blue bolts of static and energy flashed around the controls. Obviously the crystal explosion hadn't agreed with the sky-ride.

Piper started to pull violently at her parachute strap again and again, knowing perfectly well that the Talon switchblade could explode any second. Then finally, on the six pull, her parachute deployed, her feet left the sky-ride's wing and she watched the sky-ride slowly descend. The Dark Ace glared at her and she could see him activate his dark green glider wings. He jumped off the edge of his Switchblade's wing just before it went into a nosedive into the clouds and disappeared out of sight.

Piper floated slowly downwards. _What am I going to do? _She thought desperately. She couldn't just call out to one of her team mates to pick her up. No one would be able to hear her. She didn't have any crystals or a sky-ride to fly on and all she could do was float down. She concluded that her first initiative was to get some shards of the teal crystal which would be necessary for getting her back to her normal size. So all she had to do was to wait until she landed in the wastelands and retrieve the shards, as long as there wasn't a lava lake below her.

She sighed. It had been 5 minutes and she felt no closer to the wastelands. The battle waged on high above her. A loud roar of an engine growled and she could have sworn it was the Condor. Her disappearance had so far gone unnoticed.

She stared up at the battle.

Suddenly, she heard a swooping noise behind her and she whipped her head around to see what it was. Nothing was there, so she concluded it was the wind and turned back around.

"Ah!" Piper gasped.

The Cyclonian commander had started to circle her with his glider wings. He stared menacingly at her, energy blade in his grasp. His cold voice pierced the air. _"I'm going to kill you."_

Piper gave a shriek as the Dark Ace swooped down at her. She quickly pulled up her dangling feet and kicked him in the chest as hard as she could. He was knocked back a bit, but she had only angered him.

"What have you done to me?" He growled.

"_Us. _What I've done to _us. _And all I did was give you the crystal that you wanted." Piper replied mockingly. "Aren't you pleased with it?"

He thrust his sword at her face. She thought for sure that it be all over right then and there for her, but the Dark Ace had stopped his blade mid-thrust. He was just angry. Killing her would be counterproductive.

And then it dawned on her. He needed her. She was a crystal specialist. He wasn't. If he had any hopes of returning to normal size, they all depended on her. At least…for the moment.

Piper continued to float slowly downwards. The Dark Ace circling her like a hawk circles its prey.

"Look. I never meant to shrink us." Piper insisted, trying her best to calm the Dark Ace down.

"But you did none the less." The Dark Ace glowered.

Piper was getting irritated. He wouldn't stop blaming her.

"I didn't know what the crystal did!" She yelled furiously in her defence.

"And you used it anyway! I thought you were the smart Storm Hawk!"

"Oh please! This would have never happened if you hadn't been trying to _kill me!" _

The Dark Ace growled.

"Why don't you just run back to Cyclonis like you always do!" Piper shrieked.

"Oh yes, sure. I'll just walk all the way back to Cyclonia like this.", he said sarcastically. The mere thought of Cyclonis seeing him like this was mortifying. "Hmmph. Well, at least I'll be able to survive out here."

Piper was taken aback. "Excuse me? I can handle myself fine out here!"

He seemed on the verge of laughing. " Without your staff? Your crystals? You'll be dead within the hour."

"And you'll be small forever!" Piper snapped.

"Arghhh!" The Dark Ace flew at her. Instinctively, Piper's hands flew up to cover her face and foot kicked out.

"Oof." She heard the Dark Ace groan and fall away from her circling again, faintly clutching his crotch muttering some very rude things.

"Listen," said Piper, feeling a bit nervous now. "Killing me won't help you."

"Just fix this!" he angrily yelled back.

"Say please," replied Piper automatically.

The Dark Ace's jaw dropped open. "_Are you kidding me?"_

Piper sighed exasperatedly. "Were going to have to work together if either of us want to get back to normal size. As despicable as you are…"

"And as pathetic as you are."

Piper crossed her arms.

"Fine." He moaned. "Fix this…" he swallowed, "…_please_."

Piper smiled, " Sorry, what is it you said?"

He gave her a loathsome look. "_Please_. Fix this." He spoke through clenched teeth.

"Okay," she smiled. "Since you said please."

The Dark Ace groaned dejectedly. "What's the plan?"

Piper sighed. "Our first initiative is to retrieve the crystal that shrunk us."

"It blew up.", the Dark Ace reminded her.

"I know. But there should be pieces. We'll just float down to the Wastelands and hope for our sake that the pieces didn't fall in any lava lakes."

The Dark Ace looked at her sceptically but didn't argue.

"The pieces could have fallen almost anywhere, and it will take both of us to search the whole area." Piper explained. She was doing her best to prove to him that she was still needed. If he found no use for her...she didn't want to think of what he'd do to her.

They floated downwards in silence for another 5 minutes. It was the most awkward five minutes of Piper's life. They were still surrounded by the clouds and the sounds of battle where long gone. Her parachute was slow and the Dark Ace impatiently circled her.

The Dark Ace and Piper, Cyclonian and Storm Hawk were now forced to work together to achieve a common goal. It was strange. Piper wondered what Aerrow would think of this. Aerrow's arch enemy was now her ally. There would be no doubt that he would disapprove.

"This is taking too long," The Dark Ace growled. "Put your arms around my waist."

"_What?" _Piper shrieked.

The Dark Ace activated his sword and before Piper had time to react, he sliced the ropes of her parachute.

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**A/N: Hope you liked this chapter.**

**Sorry that I don't upload so often. I'm busy most of the time.**

**Anyway, please review.**

**And have a great summer! :) (well, I guess if your in the northern hemisphere)**


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